Next Week's Meal Plan

Next Week’s Meal Plan: 5 Veggie-Packed Spring Dinners

updated May 29, 2019
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(Image credit: Joe Lingeman)

How is the weather where you live this week? We woke up to snow on Monday morning but the rest of the week has been sunny, brisk, and breezy, which can only mean one thing: spring! Spring marks the return of the farmers market for us and the shift towards eating even more vegetables at dinner.

This week’s meal plan is all about swooping up as many vegetables as possible —whether from the farmers market or supermarket — and cooking them with pantry staples (think: dry pasta and that chicken in your freezer) in a way that straddles the seasons perfectly.

Welcome to This Week’s Meal Plan

I believe meal planning is the secret to stress-free weeknight dinners. Since I’m frequently asked by friends and family what I’m cooking for dinner each week, I share my weekly meal plan here. Whether you’re just learning to meal plan and looking for a real-life example of how this works or you’re an old pro on the hunt for inspiration, here’s a peek at how I’m feeding my family this week.

New to meal planning? Start here.

(Image credit: Joe Lingeman)

This pasta has got all the vegetables in one pot: snap peas, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, carrots, and crisp peppers. There’s a little pasta and Parmesan holding them together, but this all about the veggies. Double up on chopping the peppers, carrots, and herbs tonight for tomorrow’s dinner.

(Image credit: Joe Lingeman)

This noodle dish has a marinade that does double duty as a dressing and does wonders for those chicken breasts that need to be used up in the freezer. We avoid calling this salad for our kids, but make no mistake — this is a crunchy, crisp salad at its very best. Cook extra rice noodles tonight for Thursday or extra rice tomorrow night for the egg roll skillet.

(Image credit: Joe Lingeman)

Spring onions and eggs absolutely sing in this simple take on mujadara. We’re skipping the harissa for the kids and loading their bowls up with sliced cucumbers and peppers (from Tuesday) and they’ll get a hard-cooked egg each instead of the fried egg.

(Image credit: Ghazalle Badiozamani)

Thursday: Egg Roll Skillet

So this recipe calls for a bag of coleslaw mix, which is ingenious if you don’t have any other vegetables to use up — but I’m planning on doubling down on the Napa cabbage I bought for Tuesday, the carrots and scallions we used throughout the week, and a small head of red cabbage that is languishing in the fridge. P.S.: Ground pork is great here, but you can also use ground chicken or beef too.

(Image credit: Lauren Volo)

Friday: Rainbow Pizza

This recipe is the request of my 6-year-old who has become quite exacting in her pizza requests. I’m skipping the corn (I’m not using it anywhere else this week) and just using up all the vegetable bits and bobs we didn’t get to this week.